The Heatherwick Effect: What can a designer bring to the world of architecture?: For the past few years, an office development tucked away overlooking an old canal behind Paddington Station, in London, has been attracting clusters of people who come to see a footbridge. Made of steel and wood, and crossing the water in eight short sections, the bridge looks ordinary, but, when a boat needs to pass, it arcs up and back from one side like a scorpion’s tail, and folds itself into a neat octagon on the opposite bank. The Rolling Bridge is the best-known project of the British designer Thomas Heatherwick. [New Yorker]
New mayor of Rome threatens to scrap “disfiguring” Richard Meier museum: The famous American architect Richard Meier has denounced as incredible plans by Rome’s new right-wing mayor to dismantle a state-of-the-art museum designed by Mr Meier that opened just two years ago. The white marble, glass and steel structure housing the Ara Pacis, an ancient Roman altar with a sculptured frieze on the banks of the Tiber, is regarded by some architectural experts as a masterpiece. Others, however, find it hideous, with some critics dismissing it as being “like a suburban swimming pool or a giant petrol station”. [Times]
Leave a Comment